>> good morning to you. i am ainsley earhardt. >> i am heather nauert. thank you for joining us. thanks so much for watching fox and friends first. we have a busy morning. let's get right to our extreme weather alert. >> at the hour more than 50 people are bracing for what could be the worst storm in two generations. >> the eye of hurricane sandy is making land fall in atlantic city new jersey bringing this 75 mile per hour winds heavy rains and life threatening storm

surges. >> new york city, philadelphia, washington, d.c. and boston already shut down. we have live team coverage for you this morning. peter doocy is live in delaware todd barns in new york city. what can you tell us? >> the center of sandy is located 280 miles to the ooets of north carolina. we are seen with tropical storm like conditions in southeastern virginia and even across the state of maryland. we are talking about rainfall situation that could receive 10 inches. now again the outer rain bands already producing heavy rains on the order of half an inch of rin

fer hour. already picking up through wind gusts 30 miles per hour easily. parts of new york city as we head southward across new jersey. they have been dealing with wind gusts in the 30 mile per hour range and also had reports of wind gusts exceeding 30 miles an hour. baltimore over 20 mile per hour winds. land fall through the state of new jersey as we head into later tonight. it is forecast to make a transition from a tropical system to hurricane to more of a nor' easter regardless of what the classification of sandy is 111 coastal flooding and heavy snow on the back end of this system. we are dealing with sandy for days. take a look at the forecast track. tuesday 8:00 a.m. a little

further inland and forecast recur back out into portions of new england over the next several days. the center of it moving over n central portions of new jersey creates new york city farce storm surge. that's why we are forecasting the storm surge east of manhattan we are talking about significant flooding out there. also a huge storm standing about 800 miles. we are talking about water across areas further away from the new york city area ainsley and heather we are talking the rain increasing already in the afternoon hours across most of the northeast and monday night we are expecting the worst conditions across new york city and new jersey. >> we will touch base with you all morning long let's head outside to peter doocy who is in dell wear. we understand the rain is start to go come in there. give us the latest.

>> as you can see it's coming basically straight in from the side. the wind has really picked up. we checked right now sustained wind is about 40 miles per hour here in delaware. right now the gusts are enough not to take you off your feet but enough to make you lose your balance and lose where you are standing. where we are in the state of delaware at about an hour at 5:00 this morning all of the roads are going to close to the public. anybody that you will see out in the road is only going to be there for emergency purposes and emergency response. all business the area these mandatory evacuations with the areas on the coast and low lying areas all businesses there including restaurants and everything have been closed since 6 he clock.

dell wear is closed but shelters have been open since noon yesterday. they are ail cross the state. the roads will be closed in about an hour. the hope is that people at the shelters are already there. we are waiting for the sun to come up so we can see if the wind is down overnight. yesterday when the storm was really getting bad there were folks who actually came out to surf. i asked one of them what they were doing. listen to this real quick. >> i am comfortable being here but if i didn't have this i wouldn't feel comfortable. >> no matter what the authorities say obviously some folks are not heeding the warnings. which haven't seen anybody out here yet as far as i can see. i know it's early and dark there is nobody else out here. back to you. busy resort area.

thank you so much. stay safe out there. >> take a look at sandy from space. interesting shows you the storm's progress almost an hour. >> it is the calm before the storm. hurricane sandy is churjing slowly moving up the northwest todd is outside with the latest for us. >> obviously no rain out there now. it's about change. >> people in new york city. 30 people deep trying to get the last bit of bread and milk on the way in fox news corn of the world. there are signs all over the bridges warning people evacuations are mandatory in new york city. like peter just said they are not heeding the warnings.

people are not evacuating as they should. mayor michael boloomberg addressed the city tonight. those people are being very selfish. they are not going to let the people get in too much danger they will come to their rescue in the event the flood waters if the giant flood surge does what forecasters are predicting that it will do. >> todd live for us in new york. great information with the long lines at the grocery store. >> we are 8 days from the election. let's talk to mary ann rafferty about this she is covering this angle of the story. let's talk about politics right now. >> polls showing a close race. making big changes thanks to sandy. president obama and mitt romney

cancelling events in states like virginia. efforts to win the reelection. he is working with governors in the states at risk and he's vowing to eliminate red tape for assistance. >> my message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need we will be there. we are going to cut through remembered tape not get bogged down with a lot of rules. >> the president will hold a rally today in orlando before head to go the white house. mitt romney's campaign is temporarily stop sending fund raisers. romney urging supporters to keep the millions at risk in their prayers. i know that right now some people in the country are a little bit nervous about a storm about to hit the coast and our

thoughts and prayers are with the people who find themselves in harm's way. >> the romney campaign will use the campaign buzz to help with relief efforts across the east coast. also collect supplies for storm victims in virginia. he will hold rallies in virginia. it will have extended hours those affected in the storms in maryland early voting suspended as the storm makes its way. now it is time for the rest of your headlines. hurricane sandy wreaking havoc across the country. 7200 flights and moving up the east coast. some families stranded for days. >> up in new york they have been preparing for the hurricane now they have to go through it on their own.

i don't think they will fly out on tuesday. maybe lucky for wednesday or thursday. >> a lot of airlines are waving fees for passengers to reschedule their trip. >> turn over the evidence. republican law americas increasing calls for the obama administration to de classify videos from the benghazi terror attack. senator john mccain outraged the administration staying quiet with those details. >> this administration is very good at touting and giving all of the details like when they got bin laden. but now we know they were tapes they were top secret. >> democrats complained republicans are politicizing the issues. a clean sweep for san francisco. >> the giants are 1, 0>> a big

night for gem the giant beating the tiger 4-3 to win the world series. pablo san ball was named the world series mvp. it is the second championship in three years. congratulations. >> it is 11 minutes after the hour. team coverage of hurricane sandy continues this morning. we are up an hour early to bring you the latest. we will go live to the outer banks where heavy wind and high rain continues to pound the coast.

think it's weird to collect air? you wouldn't think so if you saw what your lungs collect every time you breathe. protect your health with life-saving air quality updates from the american lung association. get our free "state of the air" app at lung.org. >> parts of the east coast bracing for what could be a real super storm. hurricane sandy expected to blow

ashore tonight along the new jersey coast and other places as well. we are in seaside heights new jersey where things are picking up there. >> good morning ashley. with hurricane sandy hundreds of miles to the south, southeast. we are already feeling part are the early effects of the storm. gusts stead de at 32 miles an hour. we have seen plenty of rain in the last few hours. we get ready to do our live shot here. to give you some perspective we are in seaside heights in ocean county 62 miles north of atlantic city. it is one of the areas where the storm could potentially make land fall. governor chris christie urging residents to be vigilant. one of the big worries through this storm is flooding. let me show you why. you can see the ocean that is back there hand me to give you some perspective as well. it separates the bay from the atlantic ocean. waves earlier this morning were

8-10 feet high. you can see them almost parallel with the boardwalk we are on. the tide is expected to rise at 78:30 this morning. it could potentially be on the boardwalk where we are. we haven't seen a storm as powerful as that since 1960. it is from the bay and ocean. chris christie at the barrier islands and atlantic casinos expect to do make land fall this afternoon or early tuesday morning. back to you. >> you can sure hear the winds out there. jeff owen from our fox affiliate. stay safe out there. we want to make sure you are repaired for hurricane sandy. what should you have in your disaster kit and how much water should you have and how long until food is going to go bad? here to answer all of the questions dr. mark seigel waking up from our medical a team.

good morning. >> good morning. >> when i was studying this last night i was reading over your notes. it's not the traditional disaster kit we are hearing. you get into more detail about what we need to put in those kits. >> absolutely. the first thing we need to understand when we hear about a monster storm we may be preparing for the wrong thung. it is a generic kit. you want one gallon of water per person per day. you should make sure the top of the toilet is filled up with water. the pump will still work if you have enough water in it. >> 7 days of medication. the things we have to worry about are loss of power and the flooding. you want the medications. you want a first aid kit. you want a plan of where to go.

if you get separated where are you going to meet? if i say put three-days of food in there nonperishable food make sure you have that in there. >> you want flashlight batteries. set your bridge and freezers on the coldest settings now. it's about grofrozen food. you get 1-3 days out of your freezer. if the power goes off that's going to be the number one problem with this storm. >> how long in the regular part? >> you want to get them in a the freezer. >> you have great steps for us if we are expecting flooding in the new york area to tell us how to survive in the flood what to do with baby formula.

>> good to see you. >> good to see you. 18 after the hour. coming up continuing coverage of sandy plus other news. terror attacks being plotted this time it's not al qaeda. it's a homework assignment for college kids. one of the areas expected to see some of the worst storm surge from hurricane sandy. we are live with everything you need to know to mauks sure you are safe and you aren't caught by the flooding. [ cheeping ] [ male announcer ] you hear that?

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a oo hurricane sandy. north carolina already dealing with power outages. we have an update on the situation there. >> we have had three-days of punishing weather. we are waking up to 47 mile per hour wind gusts. it is still raining and the temperature continues to drop with some very, very cold rain. when the gusts hit you the thing to worry about is the storm will brush the state all of the waters getting pushed up into the sound. all of the homes in the low lying areas could be inundated with water.

something we will find out as the day continues. there were a number of folks fishing on the barrier islands on friday when they have water food and power. there will be a enough of coast guard evacuations. all coast card evacuations. there are a number of power outages in the state. they can't go out to restore power until the wind speeds. we were 200 miles from the center of the storm real sloiing you how punishing the storms will be when they make land fall. >> hurricane sandy one of the largest storms the east coast has ever seen. one of the least favorite storm

surges leaving water from the carolinas to connecticut. we are joined by phone with commander kenneth nero from the u.s. coast guard. good morning. thanks for calling in to us. talk about the storm surges and the flooding. what are we expecting? >> we are looking at storm surges sometimes tomorrow afternoon or late into the evening about 10 or 11 feet is the main forecast. we are making preparations to respond for that. we are moving the assets out of our area to safe haven and partners have also taken precautions to take their boats out of the water. >> the coast card is moving out of the water. what does it mean for possible rescues? >> hoping everybody takes their actions off of our need. evacuations from the city from the low lying areas hopefully if

everybody does that they will be protected. >> there are not always people who listen to the mandatory instructions, so then what? >> we will do the best we can but we are not going to put our people's harm's way if we can avoid it. >> do listen to the evacuation warnings. when you say possible flooding 10, 11 feet that's the storm surge put it in perspective for us. how significant that is for the area? >> kierding to the models that you see on the new york city web site it will be significant. there will be inland flooding but we will -- as soon as the brunt of the wind and the storm goes by we are going to try to get back in and start responding to what is going on in the city. >> commander kenneth tearo thank

you for calling in this morning. hope everything is okay out there. i was in the water on saturday and even then the tide was incredibly high. that may be a problem for folks in the area. >> keep an eye on it. we will be talking it all day. >> time for other quick headlines for you. shocking new details about the meningitis outbreak. health officials waited 6 days they con dam nated shots from the infection. 25 people have died in this outbreak 344 people have gotten sick. is this tearrism 101 to plot a terror attack for a homework assignment. she asked her students to write up to 15 pages of how they would do them and what the aftermath would be. some police offices are calling

it an insult for those who died on 9-11. hurricane sandy already wreaking havoc on the campaign trail as it moves up the east coast. what impact will it have. >> live look from norfolk virginia is the way it is hit the hardest. a lot of wind as we see the camera vibrating. we will be back in a few minutes for team coverage of hurricane sandy. i was having trouble getting out of bed in the morning because my back hurt so bad. the sleep number bed conforms to you. i wake up in the morning with no back pain. i can adjust it if i need to...if my back's a little more sore. and by the time i get up in the morning, i feel great! if you have back pain, toss and turn at night or wake up tired with no energy, the sleep number bed could be your solution. the sleep number bed's secret is it's air

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>> that is the big story of the day. hurricane sandy. welcome back to fox and friends first. himenter nauert. >> it is 32 after the hour.

let's get right to our hurricane update. ocean city maryland you can see some of that right there. heavy rain also beginning to fall in that area. take a live look at norfolk virginia. that's where the heavy rains are already coming down millions of people from north carolina to the state of maine could end up losing power. as a precaution they are stocking up on supplies. >> peter doocy is live in delaware. todd starks live elizabeth pran is live in the outer banks of forth carolina. >> good morning maria. >> national hurricane center within the next 30 minutes. i want to point out sandy will transition from a hurricane to something called a post tropical hurricane. it will move from the tropical

track and does not mean that sandy will be weakening. don't let that fool you as we head into later on today. it will be something issued by the national weather service once they find that sand dee makes the transition. we head into tonight across central and southern stations of missouri. it could effect portions of the northeast as it tons to make land fall. maximum sustained winds at 74 miles an hour. could have maximum sustained winds at 80 miles per hour. the window is not the biggest story. coast cal flooding in area the nors of the center of the storm. you can see the flow around the areas of low pressure. we will be seeing the wave tracking on to the coastal flooding beach reeggion. keep that in mind along long

island and new york harbor south of new york city. this evening later tonight across southern new jersey. quickly go over the time line. rains increasing gusts 65 miles per hour as we head into tomorrow new york city and areas southward across the state of new jersey as the center moves on through. tuesday 100 miles an hour. we will continue to see the impact. >> thank you very much. we will check in with you all morning long. head over to peter doocy live with us this morning. >> he is in delaware with us this morning. >> ainsley and heather, right now we are seeing the water come up just about as high as we have. we have been here since the storm really started to hit.

it's 20 feet away from me now. high tide is not coming for hours hour four-hours or so. on the boardwalk as you know in an area like this tidewater vacation area a lot of places to eat and shop and stay. what we don't want is the people here in delaware what they don't want is people to come up here. it's about ahooz up as we have seen. 30 minutes at 5:00 this morning all roads are going to close in the state of delaware businesses in the coastal area mandatory evacuation areas at 6:00. no roads no restaurants no reason to be on the roads nothing you can do. the shelters have been open all delaware counties they are all

there they have food and counselors on hand. this is real windy coming in from the side. you can see the rain is in for wetness. >> check in with you later this morning. >> show you some cool pictures from space. this is sandy the images showing the storm's progress over the course of almost 12-hours. look how big it is. the storm expected to hit the city. todd barns joins us with how the city is preparing. >> it is deceptive out here aside from a steady breeze it is a nice early morning hours. that is very deceptive. we know the storm is coming preparations have been underway really for the past couple days. a state of emergency was issued here in new york city. mayor bloomberg issuing an

evacuation order. 375,000 people in battory park city getting out in the way of danger. the big problem is there are many people who choose to stay put. are those people going to stay safe. there is still time for folks to get out of danger in the city of new york has been set up. in the meantime there's not much to do in the big apple. everything is shut down. mass transit, subways airports nobody is getting anywhere. you can't get a pumpkin spice latte because the starbucks are closed, too. >> the stock market closed down about 11:00 we found that news out. everything is closed down in new york. we are bracing for this. >> wanting folks to stay safe. hurricane sandy is shaking up a lot of schedules for the campaign. 8 days left until the presidential election. events in swing states including virginia and new hampshire were canceled. they are vowing the state to get

all of the help they need. >> my message to the governors as well as the mayors anything they need we will be there. we are going to cut through red tape and not get bogged down with a lot of rules. >> the president still holding a rally in orlando, florida before he heads back to the white house. mitt romney's campaign buzz is being used to assist with relief efforts across the east coast urging supporters to keep millions at risk in their prayers. >> i know right now people in the country are nervous about a storm about to hit the coast. thoughts and prayers are with the people who will find themselves in harm's way. mitt romney will visit ohio and wisconsin. they have been waiting three years and 6 months since the senate passed a budget. harry reid reportedly said it would be quote foolish to even write one now.

the senate passed the budget in 2009. >> they showed up this race with dozens of teenagers in new york left with ambulances. this is on long island. tons of people reportedly passing out and getting sick nearly 100 teenagers were hospitalized for drinking and also using drugs to make matters worse a man tried to land a private tractor on the grounds. coming up in a poor economy storm passenger evacuations and closures might end up costing us big. >> as sandy barrels up the east coast the team continues its coverage live look at delaware right now. a lot of rain and wind coming down. we will check in with our folks live in a few minutes.

>> shaurnd de the super storm expect to do impact millions of people all across the east coast. we are hearing 15 million. new england is preparing for the worst. >> this is the largest threat to human life our state as experienced in any one's lifetime. >> strong words. katherine parada joins us with what's going on in massachusetts. good morning. >> good morning. it is a day that literally hold on to your hats in massachusetts. if you are familiar with this area even if you are not the state of massachusetts this part here is the case. chatham is here in the outer edge of the tape. this is where my elbow would be. we are not much in the way of

rain or not much heavy surf from the spot we are this morning. the problem are the winds. you can get a sense of how strong they are with the wind. they were leading from massachusetts and cape cod. those were closed experiencing winds of 70 miles per hour. the storm starting in the cape and we will provide updates. >> 75 mile per hour winds. i am sure we will get that here in massachusetts. >> heather, over to you. >> thank you so much. after flooding power outages damage is it the cities the economic toll could be huge. let's talk to lauren simonetti

about it. >> a little bit of good news that is insurance assessors are already out. they are ready to go to work here. >> they are ott ground. as the coast awaits sandy everyone is trying to figure out how much it is going to bring in damage. i spoke late last night with the insurance information institute this is a mix of conditions about the tropical storm and winter weather conditions. irene last year how can we forget? it costs $4.3 billion in losses plus hundreds of millions of dollars in flood damage. it was one of the top ten costliest out there. katrina being the most costly. stock exchanges are closed today most likely tomorrow. much of lower manhattan evacuated. they were supposed to report earnings tomorrow now they are doing that on thursday. can't even get a starbucks.

they are closed in new york as well. >> there might be good news for grocery stores. >> we have all the stocked up this is great news for target wal-mart home depot and lowes. it is the first month of the modd model year affected. >> the northeast has a lot of refineries those could be potentially shut down. 6 are expected to shut down. that could take 7 percent of our capacity. >> and that could result in gasoline hikes and everything. >> yesterday 3.65 cents a gallon. >> thank you in the next hour. others are out there getting ready to work. >> continuing our top story hurricane sandy elizabeth pran

is live in the outer banks in north carolina with an update there. high winds are whipping. she is holding her hat there. hey, elizabeth. >> we are still getting the big gusts. unexpected thely at 47 miles per hour with a cold rain. we are standing on a sand dune. waves are 6-8 feet high. 4 hours away from high tide. no beach for us to stand on. showing you not how much is coming up but how much water is coming down. tsz it is a low lying area. the banks are surrounded by the atlantic and the sound. they are going to get hit by both sides of it. we also know there are a number of folks on the barrier islands who weren't able to catch the service before on friday. the families right now are stranded. local media has been in touch

with them. there is no oneable to rescue them until the coast guard is activated. they don't want them making any down to 30 miles per hour. they have gusts through out the storm we were 200 miles from the center of the storm. really giving you a good idea how much power is around the center of the storm heading to the states north of us. ainsley back to you. >> thank you so much elizabeth. we heard from the coast guard yesterday a lot of folks are coming in at your own risk. you are swimming, you are surfing they will come out and rescue you. hurricane sandy thousands of flights in the storm through the east coast. >> steve coleman is from the port authority. they are looking at some of the

bridges in the area. tell us about the flight delays and cancellations is anything coming out of this area right now? >> not really. the airports are open. they ceased other operations until further notice. they should not go to the airports until they determine services. >> the airlines don't want their airplanes here in case they are damaged. tell us a little bit about bridges and tunnels. this effects a whole lot of people in the new york area. shut down the bridges and tunnels if winds reach a certain level or if the rain gets to be too high too much. >> that's correct. right now all of the tunnels and bridges are open. people should know they plan to travel during the day during a point in time on a case dby cas basis those bridges and tunnels should be shut down. high winds and if the winds get up in the 60 mile an hour range they shut the bridges down. as far as the tunnels go it all

depends on the storm stuurge. >> for folks not in this area just to give them a sense as to how big of a deal this could be the storm surge comes from new england and flooding potentially some of the railways that could prevent a lot of people from getting around here for days and days. >> we operate the path system which goes from new york to new jersey some of the past stations including the one in hoboken and jersey city, new jersey those stations are right on the water. they are susceptible to flooding. we have staff out there around the clock to do the best we can. if there's a high storm surge and a lot of flooding this could have an impact on the businesses for employees and folks around here. you are prepared for this to go on for how long? >> we are prepared for as long

as it takes. we had dozens and dozens of operations and police staff working around the clock to do the best we can to get things back to normal as soon as possible. we are concerned about customer safety as well. we are not worried about the bridges taunlds unless we do so. >> we govern jfk newark. >> didn't you handle the trade certainty memorial as well? >> we had staff out there. we had 15 staff that are going to be in the construction of one world trade center through out the entire duration to make sure that that tour doesn't encounter any major problems. >> for folks who don't know one world trade center you have all been making fantastic progress. it roy a floor a day perhaps a

floor a week. it could potentially fly away and cause damage not only to the people in the area but also to other buildings. what have you done to try to secure things there? >> most of the materials most of the construction debris we have tied down the cranes which is the appropriate thing to do. like i mentioned we had 15 people spending the duration of the storm in that building monitoring for any problems. >> primarily the headlines for folks who could be traveling in the next couple days be sure to call your airline ahead of time. the airports now going out. thank you for joining us from the ported a authority. >> thousands of commuters affected on major highways up and down the east coast. we are joined life by virginia dot spokeswoman tamara robinson.

thank you for getting up so early to prepare our viewers. >> right now the storm is moving up the i 95 corridor. we have flooded roads in the hampton roads region that's where virginia beach in norfolk is. we have the eastern part of the state that is beginning to feel the effects of the storm with flooded roads mainly along our secondary roads and we have wind advisory as well, too. what should they do? >> we are telling people to stay put to stay at home and don't travel as much as possible. state and federal offices are closed today so that's really going to help beat out so if we get out in the roads today we are already doing that we are clearing debris right now.

we are telling people to stay put to stay at home and limit their travels as much as possible. >> a lot of people are seeing cars strapped and stranded and accidents on the road. >> there have been some accidents but we passed fairly minor flooding on the roadways mainly on the secondary roads. we don't have any closures on the interstates or on our tunnels and bridges at the time. >> thank you for joining us this morning. >> just a few minutes before 4:00 hurricane sandy is shaking up to be a monster storm. it could end up affecting 60 million people including thousands of flights. next we will tell you how to avoid being stranded by sandy. team coverage continues after the top of the hour.